This means humans could, at the very least, be confined to the sidelines of future sport, with the brains of developers in relevant countries replacing the physical power of the sports teams of old.

Dubai is also creating a new World Federation of Future Sports, whose first head will be UAE government minister Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, which doesn’t exactly signal a democratic new beginning for future world sport.

But the Government of Dubai says the organization will work with existing global sports bodies to push for international standards and regulatory frameworks around this emerging area.

Kirsty Styles is a journalist who lives in Hackney. She was previously editor at Tech City News and is now a reporter at The Next Web. She loves tech for good, cleantech, edtech, assistive tech, politech (?), diversity in tech.